


take off your colours

by karasunonolibero



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, M/M, Pre-Breath of the Wild, Selectively Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-24 09:29:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16637330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karasunonolibero/pseuds/karasunonolibero
Summary: Where there was once a black void, there’s now a dazzling pool of hues, as though a rainbow landed right in the palm of his hand.Hylia’s got to be fucking with him.~or, Link and Revali are none too happy about being each other's soulmates. Even if it does mean their lives are more, ahem, colorful now.





	take off your colours

**Author's Note:**

> edit as of 29/7/19: i'm going to be marking this as complete and leave this as a oneshot for now, since i don't think i'll come back and add to this.
> 
> more revalink! is this my brand now? i think this is my brand now. oh well. i Could be working on any number of things, most notably the revalink in four universes series, but i found [this post](http://humhalleloujah.tumblr.com/post/175518070301/claroquequiza-zaiyofics) buried on my blog and thought wow okay guess this is it then. unbeta'ed and impulse-posted like everything else i do, so here we go!
> 
> title is from take of your colours by you me at six, cos i thought it was fitting

It’s almost a joke at this point, that Link’s soulmate is the Master Sword. His soulmark is nothing special—a black blotch on his right palm, right where he always grips the hilt, so ever time Zelda or any of the other soldiers tease him about being “soul-bound to the blade in more ways than one,” he just grins. It might even be true if the mark weren’t still dark as the night sky. And if he’s being honest, he’s not sure he really cares all that much about finding his soulmate, anyway. His first duty is to the royal family, a fact he’s known since birth anyway, so. He tells himself it’s fine.

Zelda’s met her soulmate already—it’s Mipha, Princess of the Zora. Zelda had returned home from a visit to the Domain, nattering a mile a minute about how excited she was. Link had been alarmed at first when she began to tug the neckline of her shirt away, only to realize she was showing off the now rainbow mark on her shoulder where Mipha had reached out to brush Zelda’s hair back.

Of course he was happy for her. He’d never seen her in such high spirits, and the more calculating part of him hoped this newfound happiness might have a positive effect on her sealing power.

But in the days that followed, sometimes, after bidding her goodnight and retiring to his own room, he would extinguish every candle but one and hold his hand up to the flame, staring at the inky darkness that spread across his palm. And he’d let himself wonder.

One morning, Link gets the news that he’s to travel to Rito Village to meet with Champion Revali. He has to resist gritting his teeth at this news. The first time they met had been prickly at best; Zelda seems to think the trip is an opportunity for the two of them to make amends. Link privately thinks it won’t make a lick of difference. But what can he do? He accepts, and sets off shortly after sunrise the next day.

Revali is everything he knew he would hate. Of course. The Rito can’t stop preening himself for one damn minute, bragging to no end about his skill as an archer. The infuriating part is that he’s not even wrong. He _is_ the most skilled archer of all the Rito. He’s also the most unbearable of all the Rito. And the longer Link stands there, listening to him be pompous and arrogant, the less he can take it.

The final straw is when Revali challenges him to a duel, and then mocks him. “Oh, you must pardon me! I forgot you have no way of making it up to that Divine Beast on your own.” Revali laughs derisively, eyes narrowing, and flaps his wings, clearly intending to take off into the sky.

Link doesn’t think. He reaches out and grabs Revali by the ankle.

“Hey!” Revali flaps his wings harder, dragging Link to the edge of the landing. But Link won’t give in that easily. He reaches up with his other hand, yanking at Revali’s leg, and that’s when he sees it.

The black mark on his palm is shimmering with color.

Stunned, he lets go, dimly listening to Revali’s squawk of surprise as he shoots off into the air from the force. He has to be dreaming. He blinks, then blinks again, thinking maybe the thin air at this altitude is making him hallucinate. But no. Where there was once a black void, there’s now a dazzling pool of hues, as though a rainbow landed right in the palm of his hand.

Hylia’s got to be fucking with him.

Revali doesn’t come back down, and Link takes that as his sign to retire to the inn for the rest of the afternoon. He wonders if Revali even _knows_.

~

In the evening, he accepts a dinner invitation from the village elder. They meet at the elder’s nest, at the top of the stairs spiraling around Rito Village. Link sits on a pile of cushions, Master Sword lying on the floor next to him, sipping at a hot tea-like beverage the old Rito had made for him and listening to the elder chat idly about goings-on in the village.

Suddenly, Revali bursts in without so much as a word of warning or a rap on the door, causing both of them to start.

The elder almost drops a filet of fish back into the cooking pot. “Master Revali? What are you doing here?”

“My mark. My idiotic soul mark.” Revali strolls right past Link and marches up to the elder, sticking his foot out. And there, in a band around his ankle, is a ring of color.

Link almost chokes on his tea. Has Revali not noticed until this moment? He balls his own hand into a fist and keeps it in his lap, out of sight.

The elder coos excitedly. “Revali, my boy! That’s wonderful news! Who’s the lucky soulmate?”

“That’s the problem. I don’t know.” Revali folds his wings and Link almost chokes a second time. He doesn’t _know_? How many people grab his leg that he doesn’t _know_?

“Link, are you alright?” the elder asks. Link nods hurriedly and jabs a thumb at the door. “No, no, feel free to stay. It’s a happy occasion, after all—here in Rito Village, we celebrate the day a soul mark shows its colors. But usually, it’s not this…confusing.”

“Confusing is one word for it,” Revali says with a huff. “I don’t even remember _when_ it happened. It could have been last week, for all I know.”

“Revali! Do you really check your soul mark so infrequently? Don’t you want to know who your soulmate is and where they are?”

Link wishes he didn’t. Revali just shrugs and mutters something indecipherable, and then storms out.

The elder brings two dishes over, laden with grilled fish and various fruits from the region. “You must excuse him. He’s prone to dramatics, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. It’s usually an exciting time, but Revali doesn’t seem to care very much about finding his soulmate. Too focused on his training, that boy.” The elder shakes his head and waves a wing at the food. “Eat, please, before it gets cold.”

So Link does, keeping his right hand hidden until they’ve both finished eating. The only problem is that he can’t sign with one hand, so he just hopes the elder will let him retire.

It’s not to be. He wants to keep talking about soulmates “Link,” he says, gathering up their plates and stacking them by the cooking pot, “I heard Princess Zelda and Princess Mipha found each other.”

A genuine smile finds its way across Link’s face, and he nods.

“Wonderful news, truly. They seem like kindred spirits, kind and fair.” The elder pauses, looking thoughtful all of a sudden. “Forgive me if this is too forward, but may I ask…have you found your soulmate yet?”

Link shakes his head, clenching his fist even more tightly under the table and wishing the elder would talk about literally anything else.

“Oh, that’s a shame. I’ve heard many young men and women all over Hyrule are secretly hoping they’re your fated one.” The elder gives a little chuckle. “I’m only teasing, Link. There’s no rush to find your soulmate. You’re still young, you have plenty of time.”

Fortunately, he manages to leave without any further discussion of his soulmate, bidding the elder goodnight once the sun has finished setting, and goes back to the inn.

When he’s sure all the other visitors have gone to sleep, he holds his hand up to his face. The brilliant colors splashed across his palm are visible even in the slim sliver of moonlight leaking in through the fabric covering the structure; a strange sight considering just twelve hours earlier, they weren’t there at all.

Maybe he can just slip out in the morning, head back to Hyrule Castle, and put all this soulmate business out of his mind. It’s not like he really _needs_ a soulmate. He’s busy enough with his duty to Princess Zelda, after all, and Revali hates him anyway.

He pulls the blanket over his shoulders and curls into the hammock. He doesn’t need a soulmate, and he certainly doesn’t need it to be Revali.


End file.
